The words one kept hearing on the streets of New York, even as officials cautioned against leaping to conclusions that yesterday's air crash was an act of terrorism, were "Not again!"
But the words echoed by an already traumatised populace had more to do with the fact of another disaster in New York than its precise cause.
The American Airlines plane crashed into a densely-populated residential neighbourhood in Queens, some 15 miles from Manhattan, setting off four separate fires. At least 15 homes were affected and six were destroyed. A plume of thick, black smoke could be seen miles away; flames billowed high above the treetops.
Water hoses snaked through the streets as firefighters tried to extinguish flames and save homes. The smell of jet fuel burned peoples' eyes. One witness to the crash said it seemed that the pilot had tried to bank the plane away from the houses into a nearby marshland. The engine which fell off before the crash landed about four miles from the rest of the plane. The debris field, as they call these things, stretched for miles.
Adding to the horror of the crash was the fact that the neighbourhood where the plane came down was one of the most affected by the events of September 11th. On 129th Street and Newport Avenue, the neighbourhood is a working-class area which is home to many firefighters and policemen, including many Irish-Americans, and it is one that was deeply affected by the loss of life on September 11th.
In fact, a recent poll of Catholic parishes in New York found that more children in that parish had lost parents in the World Trade Centre incident than in any other parish in the city.
Eyewitnesses, many of them at home because of the Veterans' Day holiday, heard the plane sputter and crash. "I heard the explosion and I looked out the window and saw the flames and the smoke", said Milena Owens, who lives two blocks from the crash site and was putting Thanksgiving decorations on her window. "And I just thought 'Oh no, not again'."
Another eyewitness, Tom Rodberg, was sitting in the passenger lounge at JFK Airport, waiting to board a plane to Los Angeles. He looked out the window and saw the American Airlines plane head straight down. "There was a ball of flame and a white puff of smoke on the left side. Then fragments started falling", Mr Rodberg said.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani cancelled his morning events and went to the scene of the crash.
"People should remain calm. We're just being tested one more time, and we're going pass this test, too. Now we should focus all our efforts on finding survivors", Mr. Giuliani said. "The first thing that went through my mind was 'Oh, my God'. I just passed the church in which I've been to, I think, 10 funerals here. Rockaway was particularly hard-hit. The disproportionate number of the people we lost, not just the police and fire, but even the workers at the World Trade Centre, were from Rockaway and Staten Island."
City officials closed down all bridges and tunnels leading in New York as a precautionary measure while the authorities sought to determine whether the crash was an accident or another act of terrorism.
A number of witnesses reported seeing an engine and other debris falling from the plane as it came down. Tom Lynch, a retired firefighter, told WABC, a local television station, that he was walking near his home when he heard a plane explode in the sky. "It wasn't that loud. I heard a 'whoof' and I saw what looked like a wing falling off the plane", he said.
"I saw an engine fall off, and it went to the side, and in 10, 15 seconds it went down", witness Kevin O'Rourke told WABC. Another witness, John Maroney, said that the engine plummeted on to a Texaco station near his house and pieces of the plane landed a couple of blocks further away. "That's probably what shook us up from our beds. The whole house jumped", he said. "We were all out there with fire-extinguishers and hoses, but we couldn't do much."
Witness Phyllis Paul said she had heard the plane's engines. "It was very, very loud. Because of what happened on September 11th, it gave me a chill", she said. "It was getting louder and louder and I looked out the window. Then I saw a piece of metal falling from the sky."
Jackie Weiss, a secretary at Rockaway High School, said that an engine fell on a house down the street from hers. "I'm really devastated", she said. "My own son was telling me, when I was upset by the World Trade Centre, 'But you didn't lose any family members'. But seeing something like this ... I feel the world is coming to an end."
Mary Schiavo, a former federal aviation chief, said the fact that an engine had separated from the plane gave rise to suspicion that the crash was an accident.
David Russell, a pilot who has flown similar planes, told The Irish Times that all indications thus far would lead to conclusions that a mechanical failure was the cause of the crash.
In fact, the National Transportation Safety Board has been designated as the agency which will head the investigation, signalling that officials were leaning towards the theory that a catastrophic mechanical problem was at fault, a law enforcement source in Washington said.
The main airports in the New York area - Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, New Jersey - were closed after the crash and incoming international flights were diverted to other cities.